


zone-one, yes i'm in the zone

by cashewdani



Category: New Girl
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-10
Updated: 2012-07-10
Packaged: 2017-11-10 19:45:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/469976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/pseuds/cashewdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It is our child’s first day of formal education. It is the biggest deal!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	zone-one, yes i'm in the zone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [earnmysong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/earnmysong/gifts).



> Written for earnmysong. Happy Early Birthday, Sweetie!!

While she’s feeding the baby, she can hear Schmidt reading _Pinkalicious_ for already the second time tonight. Bedtime, he’d decided, was going to be his time with Cassie once they finally got her to start sleeping in her own room.

So he reads the stories, and arranges the stuffed animals and asks her each night what her wish is going to be for the next day. Most nights he’s still in his suit, hasn’t eaten dinner, and just rushed in the door while she was getting out of the bath, but he’s there, asking her what she did today with Mama, and making sure she brushes her teeth, all the way to the back.

It’s important to him, truly, and sometimes she looks at him with the kids, and she wonders how she ever was convinced he was shallow and self-involved.

As she walks to put Adam in his crib, they’re not making that co-sleeping mistake again, she can hear him say, “Good night, sleep tight,” and Cassie’s excited response of, “Don’t let the alligators bite!”

By the time Cece comes back into the living room, he’s already bent over the laptop at the kitchen table. She goes to get his dinner out of the oven. “You know it’ll be okay if you don’t come tomorrow. She’ll understand.”

“I’m not starting that precedent with kindergarten.”

She peels the tinfoil off of something that looked a lot more like a chicken breast 40 minutes ago. “But that’s just the thing, it’s half day kindergarten. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“It is our child’s first day of formal education. It is the biggest deal!” 

She snakes her arms over his shoulders and rests her head on top of his.

“I love you, you know that right?”

“Mmm, maybe you should show me.” He goes to pull her into his lap, and she lets herself enjoy it, until his cell phone dings, and well, the dishes still have to get done anyway.

###

The next morning, she braids Cassie’s hair, and let’s her wear her fancy shoes even though they’re black patent leather and don’t match the blue sundress they bought last week.

When she comes into the kitchen, her daddy says, “Well, I didn’t know that princesses even had to go to kindergarten!”

“They do if they want to be smart,” Cece reminds her husband and child both, and Cassie parrots her, “Yeah, Daddy, princesses have to be smart. They have to rule their kingdom.”

Cece interrupts, “What do you want for breakfast, sweetie?” because this will quickly devolve into what exactly are all the things that princesses have to do, a list that Cece has lived through quite a few times in her life already.

“I will have a yogurt with granola and fruit,” Cassie says. “And a coffee.”

Cece tries not to laugh at her own breakfast of choice each morning. “Not Kix? Or Honey Nut Cheerios?”

“No, I’m pretty grown up now. Daddy said.” She looks at him as though he’d been teasing. “Tell her.”

“I might have mentioned that going to school for the first time was a big step in growing up,” he says, playing with the Keurig machine.

“Oh, well, that’s true,” Cece reassures her, “but you’ve got your whole life to have to eat yogurt. So what about cereal?”

Cassie takes her usual seat at the table, behind the placemat she made at the craft store. “And coffee?”

“What about chocolate milk, baby?” Schmidt asks her. “In a mug?”

“Fine,” Cassie acquiesces, and Cece reminds them they’re under a time crunch, she’s still got to put her face on and Adam starts crying in the other room right on cue.

###

They’re later getting to the school than she wanted to be, but she’s been late for everything since she’s had kids. It’s not one of her prouder qualities.

Schmidt keeps taking pictures on his phone while Cece pops the stroller. "Cass, let's do one with your book bag and your lunchbox."

"Daddy!" she says, annoyed. "We don't have time."

He goes to adjust the strap on her purple backpack. "Are you nervous, sweetheart?"

"Mama, make Daddy stop." She has her hand on her hip, and Cece is not ready for this. They’re supposed to have another 10 years before a pose like this.

“Leave her alone, Schmidt.”

He comes over to take Adam’s seat out the car, whispering to Cece. “What is that about? Do you see how she’s talking to me?”

“She’s anxious. But you made such a big deal about how grown up she supposedly is now that she doesn’t want to embarrass herself by acting like a baby. Especially because it’s really special that you’re here.”

“Oh.”

She fixes Adam’s blanket. “Yeah, so just show her you trust her.”

“Cassie, you want to show me where your classroom is?” he asks, and she makes her own move to take his hand to walk inside, and she can see so much in both of their body language, that she has to take a deep breath before following behind them.

The teacher greets them all at the door, and Cassie shakes Ms. Hadley’s hand, and just walks right in. Doesn’t wave, doesn’t even turn, just walks on in to her cubby.

And Cece was fully prepared for Schmidt to lose it a little bit, there’s so few firsts that he’s actually been there to see, but she’s the one who yells out, “Have a good day!” and then quickly has to turn, bumping the stroller on another parent’s ankles. “Sorry!” she chokes out, maneuvering around.

“Hey, hey,” He jogs after her, and puts his arm around her shoulder, and kisses her forehead. “You’re okay.”

“I know. It’s just...she just walked in.” She wipes at her face, angry for this overreaction.

“You’ve raised a very strong little girl. You should be very proud of yourself.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you helped too.” She leans into him, and it’s times like this she’s really happy she stopped wearing heels every day.

“Why don’t we go and enjoy the fact that we have the next two and a half hours mostly alone, and then we can pick up our extremely independent daughter and take her to lunch?”

“I'd like that."


End file.
